Custody extended of nine accused of plotting massacre

Mumbai: A sessions court in Aurangabad on Thursday extended the police custody of nine accused arrested from Mumbra and Aurangabad for another four days. The accused were arrested for allegedly conspiring to target events with heavy footfalls by poisoning food and water.

A special Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) court Thursday extended the police custody of the nine accused for the third consecutive time. The ATS had demanded further custody of the accused on grounds that the probe agency wanted details of the bank accounts of the accused and for this, they had approached the concerned banks. The prosecution further argued that the police wanted to probe the Kashmir link of the accused.

On the other hand, advocate Khizar Patel on behalf of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra for five accused opposed the plea for further remand and contended that the investigating agency had failed to show any progress in the probe despite continuous police custody. He further argued that the police statement about the Kashmir link was vague, as they were only saying the Kashmir link and no further details were mentioned about it.

After hearing the arguments, Judge K.R. Chaudhary extended the remand of all the accused till February 18.

The ATS officials had claimed that the accused were trying to mix and match and conduct experiments in mini laboratories at their Mumbra and Aurangabad hideouts.

According to the police, the mastermind was one of the accused apprehended from Aurangabad and the accused had attended meetings to plot the attack there. Among those arrested, two were engineers, one a pharmacist and the 17-year-old suspect a college student studying in the science stream.

The arrested accused also included the son of underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s henchman Abdul Rashid Hussain alias Rashid Malabari. Malabari was one of the sharp shooters of the gang and with the arrest of his son, ATS is also probing into the possible underworld links in the case.